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THE WELSH PONY 



THE WELSH PONY 

DESCRIBED IN TWO LETTERS TO A FRIEND 
BY OLIVE TILFORD DARGAN 



BOSTON : PRINTED PRIVATELY 
FOR CHARLES A. STONE : 1913 



COPYBIGBT, 1913, BY CHARLES A. STONE / 



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PINKHAM PRESS, BOSTON 



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To ANNE WHITNEY 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



HERD OF WELSH MOUNTAIN PONIES GRAZING Frontispiece \^y 

MY LORD PEMBROKE x» ^ 

A MORNING RIDE jxy V 

IMPORTED WELSH STALLION RAINBOW .... 4 V 

SEARCHLIGHT— PONY MARE 6^ 

THE FAMOUS WELSH STALLION GREYLIGHT ... 8 «^ 

A FULL BROTHER OF DAYLIGHT 10 1/ 

LONGMYND FAVORITE AND HER FOAL MANOMET 



WHITE STAR 12 



i^ 



MY LORD PEMBROKE WHEN THREE YEARS OLD . . 14 '-"^ 

LONGMYND ECLIPSE ON A RAINY DAY .... 16 ^^ 

A WELSH COB 18 V 

MARE AND FOAL 20 l^ 

LONGMYND 22 i- 

LONGMYND COMMONS 24 t/' 

IMPORTED WELSH STALLION MY LORD PEMBROKE 26 V 

LONGMYND ECLIPSE AND GROVE RAINBOW . . 28 • 

LONGMYND CASTOR 32 ^ 

LONGMYND ECLIPSE AND MY LORD PEMBROKE . 34 ^ 

vii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

BRECON 36 '^ 

THE BEACONS 38 

LONGMYND POLLOX 40 / 

FOREST LODGE PASTURES 42 V 

MY LORD PEMBROKE 44 *-'' 



KNIGHTON SENSATION, LONGMYND ECLIPSE AND 

MY LORD PEMBROKE 46 



KNIGHTON SENSATION 48 



MY LORD PEMBROKE IN HARNESS 50 



INTRODUCTION 



INTRODUCTION 



While living in Devon about a year ago, I 
first became acquainted with the Welsh pony 
and found great pleasure in riding and driving 
with my children through the charming lanes 
and by-ways of Southwestern England. 

I was so fortunate as to have at that time an 
attractive little gray mare which was loaned to 
me by a friend who was spending the winter 
in France. This little mare, partly Welsh, was 
so cheerful and friendly, and seemed so much 
to enjoy our excursions into the country, that 
I felt sorry to leave her behind when I left 
Devon. 

The following spring, at the London Horse 
Show, I saw some splendid specimens of thor- 
oughbred Welsh mountain ponies ridden by 
children, and my wife and I were so attracted 
by them that we determined to get four or five 
and bring them to America. Later during the 
same season, at the Royal Agricultural Show, 
which is the best fair of its kind in the world, 



INTRODUCTION 

I saw many splendid ponies of the W^lsh breed, 
and had an opportunity to find out more partic- 
ularly about them. 

A trip to Wales was then planned with a view 
of visiting the ponies on their native hills and 
arranging with some owners and breeders to 
help me select a small herd for shipment to 
Boston. On this trip I found the Welsh country 
so charming and the ponies so attractive and so 
different from any ponies I had known before, 
that I spent altogether several weeks in Wales 
and the border counties selecting a herd which 
finally amounted to about twenty-five of the 
best of the true mountain type that I could 
obtain. 

I have been pondering ever since, not only 
how I might improve and add to my own some- 
what superficial knowledge of the remarkable 
qualities of the Welsh pony, but also how I 
might bring him to the favorable notice of my 
countrymen. In this endeavor I was fortunately 
able to enlist the interest of my cousin, Miss 
Whitney, whose friend, Mrs. Olive Tilford 
Dargan, was at that time journeying through 
England and Wales. Miss Whitney saw the 






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INTRODUCTION 

opportunity that lay before me provided Mrs. 
Dargan could be won to a study of the pony 
problem, and promised to set herself at once to 
the attainment of this object — although she 
did say that such a call upon her friend was 
about as nearly related to that lady's real voca- 
tion as a yokel's whistle to Pan's pipes. I think, 
however, that the author of the following letters 
has shown a true idea of the dignity inherent in 
the mission to which she was summoned, and 
has indeed written up to it; responding to the 
request of her friend with a whole-souled hearti- 
ness which makes me her grateful beneficiary. 

C. A. S. 
December, 1912. 



xm 



THE WELSH PONY— HIS PEDIGREE 
LETTER NUMBER ONE 



LETTER NUMBER ONE 



London, England, July /j, igii 

Dear A : 

Some months ago you asked me to tell you all 
that I knew or could discover about the Welsh 
pony. I will tell you if you will stand the listen- 
ing. For since you bade me I have taken the sub- 
ject to heart and can talk on it from dawn to dusk. 
We have travelled — pony and I — from Arabia 
to the Lybian sands and from Scandanavia to the 
midland seas; and on my recent journey through 
Wales — that land, as you know, of old adventure 
and anguish of endless battle — I kept but half 
an eye in pursuit of the vanishing skirts of 
Romance; the other eye and a half swept along 
the vista in search of the mountain lady who 
trips so handsomely on her four feet that Sir 
Phenacodus Primaevus, could he behold her 
from his fossil retreat, would acknowledge his 
success as an ancestor, whatever may have 
been his discouragements in prehistoric society. 



THE WELSH PONY 

At first, aware of my weakness for the equine, 
I was afraid that I had succumbed to my 
charmer with regrettable haste, but association 
only fixed my loyalty and sustained the cre- 
dentials that he wears on every inch of him. 
Le£ me parenthesize here and have done with 
it, that if I use my genders in hopeless inter- 
change, or am forced to the apologetic "it," 
you must extricate the sex as best you can, and 
re-register your old vow to reform the English 
language. "She" will apply but ludicrously to 
the gallant entires that were asked to exhibit 
their best steps before me; and "he" does not 
come naturally to my pen if I have in mind 
some of the graceful mares whose acquaintance 
I made as they drew me through pass and over 
bryn, almost coquetting with the task laid upon 
them, yet modest withal, for the Welsh pony, 
be the pronoun what it may, never forgets 
manners. 

Later, at the Olympia, during the Inter- 
national Horse Show, I spent a fatuously 
happy time in the stables. Many pony types 
were exhibited, and nobly they represented their 
kind, but I found none so love-inspiring as the 




Q .S 
O a 

Oh X 



HIS PEDIGREE 

little conqueror from Cymric, "Shooting Star," 
owned by Sir Walter Gilbey. He is a dapple- 
gray, eleven hands high, of perfect shape and 
brim-full of spirit, not of the self-conscious 
kind, eager for gratuitous display, but un- 
abashed, careful of the amenities, and avowing 
with all the grace in him that he will be your 
friend if you choose to be his. If he has one 
defect it is a parsimony of tail, though I heard 
none of his thousands of admirers make that 
criticism; and he carries it up and out in true 
Arabian style. In the arena, when all of the 
horses came in for the general parade — the 
big Clydesdales first, followed by representatives 
of nearly every breed in the world, the proces- 
sion ending with a wee Shetland, whose mistress 
is the little Princess Juliana of Holland — it 
was Shooting Star that received the most 
impulsive greeting — an applause of love evoked 
by his irresistible dearness, billowing where he 
passed until he completed the great circuit. 

I had the assurance of others who daily 
haunted the Show that this triumph was a 
feature of every general parade; and it was 
then that I began to ask a certain Why.? Why 



THE WELSH PONY 

is the Welsh pony gifted with a symmetry that 
subjugates at sight, while his congeners too 
often show an ensemble whose mild ungainliness 
must be admitted by their best of friends? 
Why, with the hardihood of the half-wild 
forager, and unflagging endurance, does he dis- 
play the grace and bearing that we associate 
with carefully tended animals of pedigree? 
The Exmoor and Dartmoor types only in a 
moderate degree show signs of high descent, 
and the ponies of the Fells (though I mind me 
well of the lovable traits of some of my neigh- 
bors among them up in the shires of Cumber- 
land and Westmoreland) are indubitably plebian, 
while the Welsh pony is a patrician on his wildest 
hill. Even those who hold a brief for other 
breeds confess his superiority in points that 
stamp him "of the blood." Parkinson pro- 
claims him the perfect pony of the kingdom, 
and Lord Lucas, who for some years has been 
engaged in improving the New Forest pony, 
says, after an excursion in search of desirable 
strains to introduce into the Forest, that he 
found the best ponies in Wales; and he has 
confirmed his judgment by the purchase of 



HIS PEDIGREE 

"Daylight," a young Carmarthenshire pony of 
prepotent promise, for alliance with the Forest 
stock. 

The breeder of Daylight seems particularly 
able in adding "lights" to a constellation whose 
first impulse to shine came from Dyoll Starlight, 
a sire who cannot be accused of any desire to hide 
his light under a bushel. It gleams not merely 
from one hill, but a hundred, and the breeder 
so happy as to own a bit of this strain rarely 
fails to advertise his good fortune in the name 
he gives to his prize. The result is a confusion 
of Starlights, Greylights — even Skylights! — 
in repeated series distinguished as Starlight II, 
III, etc., until the dazzled investigator prays 
for an eclipse. I take it, however, as a hopeful 
sign that one of the latest comers to the circle 
is yclept Radium. But to know these ponies 
makes one lenient to the pride that clings to 
the family name. I send you a photograph of 
Searchlight, a daughter of Dyoll Starlight, and 
granddaughter of Merlyn Myddfai, who was 
sold into Australia. She is a sister to Daylight, 
bought by Lord Lucas, and also to Sunlight, a 
three-year old pony mare, undoubtedly with a 



THE WELSH PONY 

scintillating future, who will be exhibited for the 
first time at Swansea during the National Pony- 
Show, whither I intend to go just to have sight 
of some of the exquisite young things that are 
springing up all over Wales since the recent 
awakening of Taffy the Thrifty to the fact that 
the pony is one of the most profitable assets of 
his country. The photograph of Searchlight is 
somewhat unfair to her beauty. The slight 
turn of the head coarsens the nose and widens 
the lower jaw with an unpatrician suggestion of 
which there is no hint when she is before you 
in vivid substance. Her brother, Greylight, 
poses more successfully, but I send you Search- 
light also, partly because she is a lady, and 
of a more retired life, but mainly because she 
illustrates, so far as may be in a photograph, 
that indefinable thing called "pony character," 
which you will find me dilating on later. 
Just now I want to get back to my Why. 
What in the history of the Welsh pony will 
explain this union of hardy wilderness qualities 
with a form as perfect as that produced in 
Arabia after two thousand years of jealous 
breeding.? I asked the question of dealers and 



HIS PEDIGREE 

breeders and oldest inhabitants. I went to the 
hills to ask it of the pony himself; and to the 
British Museum to ask it of relics and tomes; 
following my "Why" to Arabia, to Libya, and 
back to the "elephant bed" of the Brighton 
Pleistocene, where I stopped; for there, it 
seemed to me, the Welsh pony began, so far as 
research permits him to have a beginning. To 
follow him beyond neolithic man into the 
paleozoic ages, when he was merely an old 
father Hipparion puzzling as to whether he 
should remain in his bog and unenterprisingly 
evolve into a tapir, or go into deeper and wetter 
regions and be a spiritless rhino, or step bravely 
onto dry land, turn his five flabby toes into a 
fleet and solid hoof, and become the noble 
equus caballuSy — to pursue him thus far would 
keep me wandering in a region of timorous 
conjecture where he was neither Welsh nor a 
pony. So I begin with the Brighton deposit, 
where was found the skeleton of a small horse 
supposed, without successful contradiction, to 
be an ancestor of a species which Professor James 
Cossar Ewart has named the Pony Celticus, 
and which once overspread Western Europe, 



I 



THE WELSH PONY 

The tribe was gradually driven to the wall, 
meaning in this case the sea, and their descend- 
ants, certainly considerably modified, are even 
now to be found in the outer Hebrides and the 
Faroes. They lingered long in North Wales, 
that little nest of undisturbed peaks, and it was 
with the descendants of this species that the 
Romans mated their military animals and pro- 
duced the packhorse so necessary in rugged 
West Britain. This packhorse was not the 
heavy creature that his name suggests, but a 
sure-footed, light-bodied animal, capable, how- 
ever burdened, of going nimbly up and down 
the hills. In East Britain and the midlands 
there was no incentive to breed him, as the 
numerous heavier 'types sprung from the Forest 
horse were more serviceable there. But in 
Wales at this time we have the first authentic 
infiltration of alien blood, and this blood was 
iTndoubtedly of the Orient. The Romans, we 
know, were patrons of the East in matters 
equestrian, and in their files of leadership there 
could have been 

"no lack 
Of a proud rider on so proud a back" 

10 



HIS PEDIGREE 

as that of the Arabian courser. But of more 
importance than such occasionally distinguished 
pedigrees was the fact that their army horses 
in general were Gallic; and the Gallic horse was 
of Eastern origin. So the Romans left to Wales 
not only a heritage of legendary stone, such as 
the old camp, Y Caer Bannau, which is shown 
you in Breconshire, but a far more valued 
legacy which is yet animate in the veins of the 
Welsh pony. The invaders were busy in Wales 
for four hundred years, during which time the 
packhorse became a domestic type, and gradu- 
ally the acclimated Arabian blood crept up the 
hills and among the wildest herds — a slow in- 
fusion that left the pony still a pony, retaining 
all the hardihood that made life possible on the 
scanty-herbaged peaks. 

The ponies of the southern moors, no doubt, 
were also marked by this early cross; and they, 
too, still held at the time something of their 
heritage from the Pony Celticus; but their 
position had left them liable to mixture with 
the Forest Horse, or what represented him in 
the low-countries, and it was by just that 
mixture that the packhorse of Wessex, which 

11 



THE WELSH PONY 

was the "gentleman's horse" in Devon down to 
two hundred years ago, became different from 
that of Wales. It is very unlikely that the 
Forest Horse was ever in the Cambrian hills, 
and the active little Pony Celticus on his remote 
slopes escaped any alliance with that phlegmatic 
blood. For this reason, in the Welsh descend- 
ants of the species, the Eastern horse found a 
comparatively unmixed strain which was prob- 
ably as old as his own. The frequent absence 
of ergots and callossities (those vestigial signs, 
near knee and fetlock, of vanished digits) 
would indicate in the Pony Celticus a develop- 
ment as ancient at least as that of the Libyan 
ancestors of the Arabian horse. Professor 
Ridgeway, of Cambridge University, thinks that 
he may even be a related northern branch of 
the horse of Libya, and that both the North 
African species and the Pony Celticus may 
claim the bones of the small horse found in the 
Brighton Pleistocene as ancestral. If this be 
true, then when Roman met Welsh in equine 
society, the two oldest breeds of the world were 
united, and, as you know, the older the breed 
the more ineradicable are its characteristics. 



12 



HIS PEDIGREE 

If originally congeneric, that too would be in 
favor of the type produced by such a union, and 
may be a key to the persistence and potency of 
the Welsh mountain stock. In the Pony Celti- 
cus, wherever his modified posterity is least 
changed, the dorsal and lateral marks indicating 
equatorial origin are reproduced with little 
difficulty. 

And we have another reason for suspecting 
the pony ancestor of our Welsh variety to be of 
North African kinship rather than allied to the 
Asiatic horse, with large ergots and heavy 
callossities, which came by the northern route 
into Scandinavia. This horse, by tradition and 
record, was of an intractable disposition. It 
was in upper Asia that the bit originated, while 
the Libyan horse was of so gentle a nature that 
his descendant is yet ridden on the Arabian 
plains with no more guidance than can be given 
by a simple noseband. Of this horse Mohammed 
could say, "God made him of a condensation of 
the southwest wind"; the consummate simile for 
fleetness and mildness. But I don't accuse the 
Asiatic horse of being the first sinner. Though 
the callossities are against his being as old as 

13 



THE WELSH PONY 

the Libyan, he may have originally possessed 
as gentle a temper, which became lost through 
association, with brutal races (see Herodotus) 
who insisted on being masters instead of friends. 
The horse resents mastery, as you know, and re- 
sentment is peculiarly poisonous to his character. 
Make him a comrade or nothing. His ascent may 
have been more dignified than our own, and in 
one way at least he prehistorically showed more 
gentle intentions; 'twas we who kept the claws! 
But while I leave the question of responsibility 
open in the case of the Asiatic horse, I am glad 
to think that our pony did not come by way of 
his blood, whether corrupted by man or tainted 
with original sin. Certain it is that the Pony 
Celticus possessed a docility and fair-mindedness 
that indicated a blameless descent, and there 
is no evidence that his Welsh offspring were 
ever handled by man in a way to warp his 
character. It is true that in his wild state, 
after the sheep-dog was introduced into Wales 
(which was comparatively late), the pony was 
much harried, and driven to the more barren 
regions; but whenever brought down to the 
farms he was at once admitted to family 

14 



HIS PEDIGREE 

privileges that gave him confidence in human- 
ity. As early as the days of the good king, 
Howell Dha, laws for his care and pro- 
tection were recorded, and these seem to 
have been but a codification of rules that had 
long been in general practice. We read that 
if a man borrowed a horse and fretted the hair 
on his back he was to pay a fine to the owner; 
but such a law as we find among the ancient 
statutes of Ireland, "Quhasoever sail be tryet 
or fund to stow or cut ane uther man's hors 
tail sail be pwunschit as a thief," seems to have 
had no call for existence in Welshland. 

I have said that there was no danger of 
invasion by the larger British horse on the 
eastern side. His big feet would not have been 
at home on the rocky Welsh passes. On the 
fen side of England the horses developed a 
softness of hoof and sponginess of bone whose 
gradual alteration in later days to a close, 
dense texture, was one of the difliiculties that 
had to be overcome in the production of 
the English thoroughbred; but, fortunately, 
the mountain pony was never troubled by 
such an inheritance. On the channel side 



IS 



THE WELSH PONY 

of Wales there was a smaller breed of attrac- 
tive neighbors, and the question of Invasion 
was different. Just a short space across the 
water lay a nation of kindred Celts, and 
that they exchanged horses as well as wives 
with their Welsh cousins — not always by con- 
sent — literature gives us sufficient proof. And 
the horses of Ireland, happily bred on a soil of 
limestone formation, developed such compact- 
ness, strength, and fineness of bone, that when 
their hard, clean, flat legs brought them into 
Welsh camps and pastures they were always 
welcome to the unseen genius attendant on the 
mountain pony. The once noted Irish hobble 
was often brought into Wales and left his mark 
there. 

The records left by the admirers of this 
animal are pleasant reading. Says old Blunde- 
vill: '*These are tender-mouthed, nimble, light, 
pleasant, apt to be taught, and for the most 
part they be amblers and therefore verie meete 
for the saddle and to travel by the way." And 
this desirable creature was produced by a union 
of the Spanish-Arabian horse with the Irish 
pony, the descendant of the yet prevailing 

16 



HIS PEDIGREE 

Celticus; for the Irish isle, as the Welsh hills, 
was one of his last strongholds. But long 
before the introduction of Spanish stallions into 
Ireland, this pony had become modified by the 
Gallic breed — the same Eastern strain that the 
Romans brought into Wales. In the three 
horse skulls with finely preserved Arabian fea- 
tures, recently discovered in a peat-buried 
crannog, Professor Ridgeway finds proof that 
the Eastern horse was in Ireland possibly as 
early as the sixth century; and the description 
of the horses in the oldest Irish saga support 
the claim that the warhorse and charger of the 
Irishman in his epic days were of Eastern im- 
portation. Breton was an open way of the 
Gallic horse to Ireland, for there was much 
compliment, combat, and barter, between the 
Irish and Breton Celts. And the horse of 
Breton was particularly suitable for union with 
Irish stock, the Arabian in him being already 
modified by a hardy breed of the hills. Now 
let me get back to Wales, taking with me this 
augmentation of the Arabian strain, pony- 
diluted, through the Irish port — another in- 
fusion most happily chosen by the beneficence 

17 



THE WELSH PONY 

that seems to have guided the Welsh pony in 
his evolution. Not too much of this visiting 
blood either; for there were always wild herds 
that kept much to themselves; "companys of 
beestles" content to come only occasionally to 
the valleys, . when they would lure away some 
gallant or coquette of the lowlands, glad to 
sniff the air of a fuller freedom. It was the 
slowness of these infusions, filtering through 
centuries, and always the same inexpungeable 
strain, that has made the cross so lastingly 
successful. 

Now to rush down to the modern period. As 
population grew, the making of roads, reclama- 
tion of slopes, and increase in local valley traffic, 
made the larger horse more attractive to the 
eyes of the Welshman; and some praiseworthy 
types, notably the Cob, were produced by the 
introduction of well-bred English sires. But 
there were unwelcome by-products in the 
process, and the importations from the Shires 
were often ill-judged and indiscreet. The light, 
graceful-bodied carthorse, of miraculous en- 
durance, the descendant of the early packhorse, 
and very different from the clumsy, sluggish 

18 



HIS PEDIGREE 

carthorse of the Shires, has suffered deterioration 
in beauty, bone and spirit. As a sage of Rad- 
norshire puts it, there is a touch too little of 
the Arab and a touch too much of Flanders. 
And as I cannot claim that all the good blood 
brought into Wales made its way to the pony 
on the hills, while all the bad blood staid below, 
I must admit that he has been affected by these 
later introductions; but in far less degree, for 
time has not been left to have its final way, nor 
is the coarser strain of Eastern potency. We 
must also remember that two centuries ago, 
when these adventures in breeding began, the 
English had commenced those prudent experi- 
ments with the Arab cross which has fixed the 
thoroughbred in his sovereign place. There 
had been occasional importations of the Arab 
ever since the Roman days, but the English 
horses were of such numerous and diffused types, 
and so unlike the Eastern horse in build and 
nature, that such spasmodic introductions had 
no permanent eff"ect. The great improvement 
came with the determined enthusiasm and pa- 
tience of the eighteenth century breeders; and 
it seems providential again that as the ways 

19 



THE WELSH PONY 

of breeding between England and Wales became 
promiscuously open, the Eastern blood was 
becoming prevalent in England. 

From this source the Welsh breeders began 
renewing the beneficent strain in the slow, best 
manner. Merlin, a descendant of the Brierly 
Turk, after his brilliant years on the turf, was 
brought to Wales and turned out with the 
ponies on the Ruabon hills to become the founder 
of a famous and prolific line. Mr. Richard 
Crashaw secured for his county the Arab sire 
of Cymro Llwd; and in Merioneithshire, the 
half-Arab, Apricot, of multiple progeny, became 
an imperishable tradition. Seventy or eighty 
years ago, Mr. Morgan Williams put Arab sires 
with his droves on the hills behind Aberpergwm; 
and it was in this region that in recent years 
Moonlight was discovered, roving and unshod, 
by Mr. Meuric Lloyd, and this dam of certain 
Arabian descent gave Wales her DyoU Star- 
light, to whose paternity I have referred. 

Notwithstanding this reinforcement of his 
aristocracy, there were too many doors left 
carelessly open. The larger pony of the lower 
lands was becoming mixed with the Cardingan- 

20 




5 "^ 

< 3 



HIS PEDIGREE 

shire cob; and some owners were guilty of letting 
half-bred Shire colts have the run of the hills. 
In time the only safe place for the mountain 
pony would have been the topmost crests, but 
for an event of happy effect upon his destiny. 
This was the organization of the Welsh-Pony- 
and Cob-Society in the Royal Show Yard at 
Cardiff one springtime eleven years ago. Lord 
Tredegar was the first president, and after him 
the Earl of Powys. King George became a 
patron, and the society acquired an impetus 
that proved it had not been born too soon. Not 
only are all the Shires of Wales represented in 
its council, but also the border counties of 
Monmouth, Shropshire and Hereford. The 
formation of a Stud Book was the initial practi- 
cal business of the Society, and its first volumes 
derive special value from the fact that Wales 
has always tended to the patriarchial system, 
and her traditions, whether of horses or families, 
can be relied upon. There have always been 
wise and prudent breeders in the land; men 
who could, in some degree, counteract indiffer- 
ence and hold to ideal aim. 

The Society went to its work with "ears laid 

21 



THE WELSH PONY 

back"; but I will mention only two of its 
achievements. One of these, which will affect 
the pony's future, so long as ponies be, was an 
Act of Parliament that enables breeders to clear 
the Commons of all stallions which a competent 
committee decides are undesirable. The Com- 
mon Lands of Wales are so extensive, and com- 
prise so many tracts, that improvement by 
selection other than nature's is a farce so long 
as the pasturage is free to any and all. Nature 
long ago accomplished her best for the Welsh 
pony, and while he was practically an isolated 
type it was easy to maintain her standard. But 
with multifarious breeds and half-breeds in 
proximity, the carelessness of man was begin- 
ning to undo her work, and Wales might have 
followed Ireland in the deterioration of her 
pony stock and the loss of a fixed type, if the 
Society had not actively intervened. The 
struggle over the Act was discouragingly pro- 
longed, for Taffy is sometimes stubborn, and he 
could not see that the right to use the Commons 
would still be a right if it were limited by con- 
sideration for one's neighbors. His beast might 
be as poor a thing as he pleased — sickle-hocked, 

22 



HIS PEDIGREE 

goose-rumped, tucked up in the brisket, as some 
of the larger valley-bred ponies were, and, alas, 
are — but if it could successfully beguile the 
feminine portion of his neighbor's carefully sorted 
drove, the helpless neighbor, injured in heart and 
pocket, had no redress. Finally, after many dif- 
ficulties, unwearying effort, and a constant dis- 
play of good nature, the committee secured the 
passage of the Act and put an end to what one 
of the overworked members, exasperated to hu- 
mor, termed the "unlimited liability sire system." 
I have mentioned two sections where this 
system had been brought to a close some years 
before the passage of the Act. One of these is 
the Longmynd Range, lying back of Church 
Stretton, in Shropshire. Though beyond the 
March, it is practially Welsh in all that concerns 
its pony interests. The Range covers about 
seventy square miles, and at the top is a plateau, 
two thousand feet high, which was a stronghold 
of the pony before England began to write her 
history. Deep gullies cut the slopes and widen 
Into ravines, then into valleys. There are crags 
to climb, and boggy dongas to be avoided. The 
heather in places is girth-deep, and altogether 

23 



THE WELSH PONY 

it is a typical breeding spot of the wild mountain 
pony. Here we understand how he came by 
his agility and hardiness, and realize how per- 
sistent must be the qualities bred into him by 
centuries of such environment. In this region 
it has been the custom for the last twenty-five 
years to have an annual drive and round-up, 
when all the ponies are brought down, selected, 
sorted, the undesirables cast out, and the others, 
excepting those picked for market, or exchanged 
for ponies of another run, sent back to freedom. 
The ponies are not eager to leave their heights, 
and they give the riders that bring them down 
an anxious as well as exhilarating time. The 
"drives" take place in September, and I hope 
to be at the next one, but whether for the sake 
of poetry or ponies I don't yet know. I am 
beginning to believe that they are not unrelat- 
able. 

The other section where practically the same 
system was adopted years ago, is Gower Com- 
mon, on the Peninsula near Swansea. In this 
region, as in Longmynd, the standard has been 
raised in a manner very attractive to the 
contemplative purchaser; but I would not sound 

24 



HIS PEDIGREE 

the merits of their ponies above all others, for 
here and there throughout Wales are breeders 
who, with difficulty and expense, have individu- 
ally practiced a system of sorting; and now 
that the Commons Act has been passed, every 
one, be he breeder or pony, will have an oppor- 
tunity to do his best for his country. 

The Society's other achievement which I wish 
to note connects itself with the United States 
and the mystifying evolution of a new order 
regulating the certification of those recognized 
breeds to be accorded exemption from import 
duty "on and after January 1, 1911." The 
only thing c^ear to me in regard to the inter- 
national reactions involved, is that without the 
establishment of a Stud Book, and the vigorous 
registrative activity of the Society's Council, the 
new order, which recognizes the Welsh pony as 
a pure breed exempt from duty, would not be 
in existence, and the same mysterious "rules" 
and "exceptions" that bewildered breeders 
previous to 1911 would still be a discouragement 
to exportation. Whereas all is now plain sailing. 

And here is the end of my prologizing. Hav- 
ing finished with his history, I shall be ready 

25 



THE WELSH PONY 

in my next to tell you something of the pony 
himself. In this letter I have only tried to 
uncover some of the influences that have made 
him what he is to-day — in beauty an Arab^ 
in constitution an original pony. There was, 
first, his early purity of type as a descendant of 
the true pony that homed in these lands. It 
has been said that when Henry the Eighth 
passed his law for the extermination of all 
horses below an approved stature, some of the 
lowland ponies, scenting danger and led by 
equine Tells and Winkelrieds, retreated to the 
mountain fastnesses, defied the throne of Eng- 
land, and became the Welsh mountain pony. 
This is a mistake. The ponies scattered through 
the Shires were weedy stunts of horse breeds 
from which all trace of the Pony Celticus had 
long disappeared; and if any of the persecuted 
beasts gained the regions of safety that lay 
cupped in the lofty hollows of the Welsh slopes, 
they found native occupants before them. But 
I cannot believe that the mountain stock ever 
received this dreggy mixture from the Shires. 
In spite of his ancient and resisting lineage, 
such adulteration would have left its mark on 



26 



HIS PEDIGREE 

the pony's conformation, as, for instance, the 
large ears of the Dartmoor, or the coarse heads 
of the Fell ponies. Doctor Johnson suggested 
(not confidently, I admit) that the word "pony" 
came from "puny," and was applied to the 
creatures so stigmatized because they were puny 
degenerates of a nobler breed. Though he was 
wrong philologically, we have no reason to 
doubt that he knew the lowland pony of his 
times; and when I come across the implication 
that these "degenerates" escaped hostile hands, 
scaled unaccustomed heights, and became the 
ancestors of the Welsh pony, with all his in- 
vincibilities, it simply puts my back up. 

But I was recapitulating. The second salient 
factor in the production of our pony was the 
manner in which the Eastern blood was intro- 
duced — those repeated infusions from the 
earliest times in a form most favorable for min- 
gling with his own. And a third influence was 
his remote, mountain home. Perhaps this 
ought to be put first, as it made possible the 
other two. It kept him a Pony Celticus long 
after the species in other parts of Britain had 
become mixed with the Forest tribe; and it 

27 



THE WELSH PONY 

prevented the rapid introduction of alien blood 
which, even when it is of the best, will if too 
liberally applied turn the hardy and valuable 
pony into an indifferent small horse. 

These are the influences which, working to- 
gether for seventeen hundred years (from the 
first to the eighteenth centuries), produced the 
precious and unexcelled foundation pony-stock 
of the Welsh mountains. 

I suspect that this compression into stark out- 
lines of my delectable wanderings after facts and 
conclusions has made me too prosy for your 
patience, — but if I make any apology it will be 
to the pony; remembering, as I do, one Sunday 
morning in Brecon, when I sallied out unmoved 
by the church-bells, which chime so indefati- 
gably in Welshland, and climbed the highest, 
craggiest hill in sight. 

On the top of it I found a small herd of ponies, 
living without bluff or boast the simple life. 
There were several mares with young foals, and 
some colts of poetic promise, which led me to 
press for entrance into the family circle; but 
with retreating dignity they let me know that 
1 was a mere inquisitive bounder, and I was 

28 




> o 
■J M 

3^" 



HIS PEDIGREE 

reduced to the old trick that used to work so 
successfully with the cows in the high meadow 
above the red cottage in Shelburne. I laid 
myself down, my hands over my eyes and my 
fingers craftily windowed, and in a few moments 
was surrounded by a group investigating me 
with scientific detachment. Then I found my- 
self looking into eyes, very different from un- 
imaginative Bossy's. Through their un- 
guarded limpidity I was admitted to a realm 
where it seemed for the moment, at least, that 

"beast, as man, had dreams, 
And sought his star " 

Cardinal Newman said that we knew less of 
animals than of angels. A severer modicum of 
knowledge could not be imputed to mortals. 
But we must admit the truth of the maxim. 
Such then and so bottomless being the depth of 
our ignorance, how can we bestow his just dues 
upon our "brother without hands," the creature 
that Huxley called the finest piece of animal 
mechanism in existence.'* 

O. T. D. 



29 



LETTER NUMBER TWO 



London, England, August /, 1912. 
Dear A : 

I have just returned from a day In Epping 
Forest, whither I was drawn by a rumor of 
primeval beeches to be seen there. And I 
found them — groves of the great trees, each 
as large as the largest oak of my memory. But 
my interest was soon divided, for our pony was 
there too — very lovely and very Welsh — 
tripping along the forest roads and drawing the 
mind away from a reverie of the old Saxon days, 
for it was in these very woods that the pious 
Confessor impartially exercised his two passions 
for praying and hunting, and here that his 
devotions were so disturbed by the multitudi- 
nous nightingales that he besought God to 
banish them; and history records that the birds 
had to go. But I suspect that the arrows of 
Edward's obedient henchmen assisted a too 
complaisant deity in the work of banish- 
ment. This, too, is the forest through which 
the mourning Githa brought the body of 
" Haroldus infelix " to be interred in the 



31 



LETTER NUiMBER TWO 



London, England, August /, 1912. 

Dear A : 

I have just returned from a day In Epping 
Forest, whither I was drawn by a rumor of 
primeval beeches to be seen there. And I 
found them — groves of the great trees, each 
as large as the largest oak of my memory. But 
my interest was soon divided, for our pony was 
there too — very lovely and very Welsh — 
tripping along the forest roads and drawing the 
mind away from a reverie of the old Saxon days, 
for it was in these very woods that the pious 
Confessor impartially exercised his two passions 
for praying and hunting, and here that his 
devotions were so disturbed by the multitudi- 
nous nightingales that he besought God to 
banish them; and history records that the birds 
had to go. But I suspect that the arrows of 
Edward's obedient henchmen assisted a too 
complaisant deity in the work of banish- 
ment. This, too, is the forest through which 
the mourning Githa brought the body of 
" Haroldus infelix " to be interred in the 



31 



u a i" '"^ 



THE WELSH PONY 

abbey founded by him in the woods he had 
loved. But such faded memories yielded to 
the modern picture as soon as I saw that my 
little gallant from the Welsh hills formed a 
lively part of it. He was there in numbers, 
attached to carts full of children, to ladies' traps, 
and sometimes to a more ambitious vehicle. 
I saw one noble fellow, barely eleven hands 
high, drawing two fat men, each weighing, to 
my indignant eyes, at least seventeen stone. 
In my first rashness I should have protested, 
but the men were lolling back in such a haze 
of bliss, pipes in their mouths, and beaming 
with contentment, that I felt it would be irrever- 
ent to disturb a happiness so rare in this rough 
world. I also saw that the little Welsher was 
in good fettle and would probably be the 
first to resent a protest involving an impeach- 
ment of his powers. 

The '^arts that pleased me most were those 
that overflowed with chirruppy, glowing chil- 
dren. They usually took the by-ways denied 
to the motors, and as they bubbled out of sight 
into a leafy world, I felt renewedly grateful to 
the gentle servitor that makes such intimacy 

32 



HIS QUALITIES 

between childhood and woodland possible. 
Little feet cannot get far unassisted, but give 
them such a helper as the pony and their explo- 
rations need hardly be limited. The ideal 
creature for this purpose is the mountain pony 
of about eleven hands. Sagacious and docile, 
he is the safest of companions, and is just as 
happy under saddle as in harness. The Welsh- 
Pony- and Cob-Society recognizes two classes of 
the pony, one this smaller animal of the moun- 
tains, not exceeding twelve hands in height, 
and the larger pony, usually lowland bred, which 
may be as high as thirteen hands. But the 
mountain pony is held to be the foundation 
stock of all the ponies of Wales; furnishing the 
indestructible material from which is bred the 
little hunter, saddler and harness pony, or the 
dear, obliging factotum who will equably plough 
your garden in the morning and high-step in 
the park in the afternoon. Whatever his 
family leanings, toward the Arab, thoroughbred, 
or more cobby-built type, you will find his 
"pony character" unafl^ected. I have already 
alluded to this attribute, so evident in the 
pony and so elusive in definition. It is a 

33 



THE WELSH PONY 

quality made up of so many others that a full 
description would be mere endless analysis. 
Even the all-charitable word, "temperament," 
will not shelter inadequacy here. To know it 
one must know the pony. A hint of it is found 
in his warm, quick sympathy. The horse, how- 
ever faithful, can at times be cold and judicial 
in friendship. The pony accepts you without 
reserving his judgment. He must love wholly, 
by virtue of the romance that is in him — a 
tinge of imagination that enables him to idealize 
rather than criticise, and not an inferior men- 
tality as some students of horse psychology 
would mistakenly have it. But, though the 
latchstring of welcome is always out, he will 
never toss it in your face, for he, too, has a 
dignity that awaits approach. He serves you, 
but he is not your underling. If you are so cruel 
as to be simply the master, ignoring the higher 
calls of companionship, he does not retreat 
into indifference, as the horse will, but remains 
hopeful, expectant, until he wins an under- 
standing or breaks his heart. I do not exagger- 
ate. Wait till you know him; and then you 
will not more than feebly doubt the story of the 

34 



HIS QUALITIES 

pony who came to his aged master, Saint 
Columba, on the day he was to die, and fore- 
mourned their parting. 

"Character" is also found in the way the pony 
uses his eye — the manner of his outlook on 
the world. In the horse's eye one may some- 
times read a slight suggestion of boredom. He 
is disillusioned. But the pony does not confess 
to a finished experience; there may be surprises 
ahead. He is blithely ready for the unusual; 
and this brings us to another element of "char- 
acter" which is peculiarly the pony's; that is, 
a shrewd understanding which gets him out of 
a difficulty while the horse is still pondering. 
The latter has had his nose in the mangers of 
civilization so long that he has lost the men- 
tal independence which his pre-domestic life 
fostered. Unstimulating, derivative knowledge 
he has in plenty from his association with man; 
but the Welsh pony of the hilltops, to this day 
pressed by the necessity of looking out for him- 
self, has a capable initiative which the horse 
does not possess. Through ages on his se- 
questered peaks he fought for life against an 
enemy armed with sleet and snows and dearth, 

35 



THE WELSH PONY 

and the record of his struggle is writ in his 
fibre. He knows where he may climb and where 
he may not, the slopes that will let him live 
and the steeps v/here starvation waits. The 
colt, though he has never been in a bog, will 
avoid its treachery, and needs no warning where 
the gully is ugly, the pool deep, or the ice too 
thin to bear him. And there has been much 
hiding and flying, for the sheep-dogs of Wales 
have been merciless to the pony. Some call 
here, you see, for a usable mind! 

I must mention one more ingredient of this 
composite "character" — his indomitable spirit. 
Match him against a horse of equal strength 
and the latter will be out of heart while the pony 
is confidently forging on. At Forest Lodge, 
the home of a gentleman who owns the largest 
herd in Wales, I saw a mare of less than twelve 
hands just after she had taken four men down 
the long hills to Brecon and up again — four- 
teen miles — and she was not drooping apart 
waiting to be washed and rubbed down, but 
frisking over the yard as if she were quite ready 
to be off again. This spirit that unconsciously 
believes in itself is an unfailing mark of the 

36 



HIS QUALITIES 

mountain ponies. If ever they are guilty of 

jibbing, or like 

"poor jades 
Lob down their heads," 

investigation is sure to reveal an injudicious 
cross too recent to be obliterated by the per- 
sistent pony strain. 

Of this blitheness of spirit I will give another 
instance. So far as I am involved I do not 
look back upon the incident with pride, but the 
pony in the case shall have his due. At Beddge- 
lert I slept late, and was not fully dressed when 
informed that the coach was at the door. Being 
anxious to get to Port Madoc in time for the 
Dolgelly train, I rushed down and out, leapt 
to a seat, and was off before I realized that the 
"coach" was a sort of trap drawn by a single 
pony. There was a cross seat for the driver, 
and behind it two lengthwise seats arranged so 
that the occupants must sit facing, with fre- 
quent personal collision. We started six in all, 
and a snug fit we were. I would have descended 
and tried to secure a private conveyance, in the 
hope of saving the pony my own weight at least, 
but we were fairly out of the village before I 

37 



THE WELSH PONY 

was fully awake — and there was my train to 
be caught! However, I soon found that the 
pony would not have profited by any tenderness 
on my part, for all along the road there were 
would-be passengers waiting to be "taken on." 
The first we met was helped up and made a 
third in the driver's seat, and the second" pinned 
himself somehow into the seat opposite me. I 
was congratulating myself on the Welsh courtesy 
that had left me, a stranger, unmolested, when 
we rounded a curve and I saw that the gentle 
consideration had been unavailing. A man 
stood by the way signaling — a man of unquali- 
fied depth and breadth. I thought that he 
alone might fill the cart. As that astounding 
driver halted and the man approached my 
instinct for self-preservation came basely upper- 
most. I had observed the middle passenger 
on the other seat to be quiet, elderly and lean. 
I coveted a seat beside him, and hastily, on the 
pretext of being a stranger, desiring a better 
view of the landscape, asked an exchange of 
seats with the opposite end, which was courte- 
ously granted — all to no purpose. My lean 
neighbor, all at once, took on alarming latitude. 

38 



HIS QUALITIES 

I had reckoned without disestablishment. It 
seemed the man was a bitter opponent of Lloyd 
George. If some one dropped a word of 
advocacy he was straightway a tempest of op- 
position. His shoulders threatened, his elbows 
flung dissent, his fingers snapped, his arms, 
compassing the visible area, were not dodgeable, 
as he defied the world, the bill and the devil 
in the shape of the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

— ah well, there was nothing left for me but 
resignation and nine In a donkey cart. 

Thus it was I journeyed through the wonderful 
Pass of Aberglaslyn with its dripping cliffs, walls 
of crysoprase, and bowlders of shattered dawn 

— beauty of which I wrote you, with care at 
the time not to trench upon circumstances here 
disclosed. And thus I passed by beautiful 
Tanyrallt, once the home of Shelley, but I did 
not lift my eyes to the slope where the house 
stood. I kept them on the roots of the mighty 
trees that border the foot of the hill, for I felt 
that if I looked up I should see my poet's 
passionate apparition confronting me. Such 
an angel as he was to the poor beasts! How I 
came back afterwards to make my apology 

39 



THE WELSH PONY 

to his spirit need be no part of this letter. 
When we reached Port Madoc, dissevered, and 
dropped ourselves out, I crept around to the 
pony with commiserating intent, and found 
him to be the only unwilted member of the 
party. He had lost neither breath nor dignity, 
and his happy air and the tilt of his lovely 
head seemed almost an affront to one in my 
humbled state. He was under thirteen hands, 
and he had drawn nine of us eight miles over 
an uneven road at an unflagging trot; and here 
he was almost laughing in my face, and barely 
moist under his harness. 

It is his sureness of himself that keeps him 
cool, being neither anxious nor fearful of failure. 
Of course this confident spirit has its source in 
his physical hardiness. In mere bodily endur- 
ance he is the equal of the pony of Northern 
Russia, while much his superior in conformation. 
But I should never use the phrase I so often 
heard, "You canH tire him out." It is wrong 
to suppose that he can be pushed without 
limit, or kept constantly at the edge of his 
capacity, and be none the worse for it. Too 
often the pony that might have lived usefully 

40 



HIS QUALITIES 

for thirty or forty years is brought to his death 
at twenty. He will give man his best for little 
enough. On half the food that a horse must 
have, he will do that horse's work; and when 
not in service, all he asks is a nibbling place, 
barren as may be — no housing, blanketing, 
coddling. I know of a pony mare who has 
spent every winter of her life unsheltered on 
the hills of Radnorshire, and has not missed 
foaling a single year since she was four years 
old. The last account I have reports her as 
forty-one and with her thirty-seventh foal. 
And I have come across other instances of 
longevity that make me believe that the pony 
that dies at twenty dies young and has not 
been wisely used. 

Formerly the ponies on the hills had no help 
from man, however long the snows lay or the 
winds lashed; but now, if severe weather per- 
sists, they are brought down to the valleys, or 
rough fodder is taken to them. At Forest 
Lodge I saw four hundred ponies freshly home 
from a winter sojourn on the hills near Aberyst- 
wyth. They still wore the shaggy hair put on 
against a pinching February and stinging March 

41 



THE WELSH PONY 

under open skies. A little later they would 
shed these protective coats and be trim and 
sleek for the summer. I had been repeatedly 
told that the Welsh pony was remarkably free 
from unsoundness, but among so many that 
had not been sorted for the year, and were at 
the worn end of their hardest season, I expected 
to find some of the lesser blemishes, if not 
defects of the more serious kind. But if I did, 
it was with a rarity that effectually argued 
against them. And I found this true all through 
Wales. Occasionally I would see low withers, 
a water-shoot tail, or drooping quarters. But 
predominantly the quarters were good, not with 
the roundness that denies speed, burying the 
muscles in puffy obscurity, but displaying the 
strong outline which is a plump suggestion of 
the gnarled and bossy hip-bone beneath. As 
for the high withers that are always to be 
desired, the Welsh pony is better off in this 
respect than the other breeds of Britain, unless 
it be the pure Highland type. You who re- 
member Belmont days full of equine signifi- 
cances, need not be told how much the horse 
is affected in anatomical free play by the 

42 




o « 

K-1 



J 



HIS QUALITIES 

withers. If they are high the interlacing fibres 
attaching the shoulder-bone to the trunk may 
rise freely, and the shoulder arm be long and 
sloping — a position which gives easy move- 
ment and power to the forearm and the 
structures below it — the pony moves gracefully, 
without strain, with good action and sure 
speed. But low withers limit propulsion from 
the shoulder, and while there may be good 
knee action the pony must pay out strength 
to get it. There is, besides, a strain on the 
cervical muscles which makes natural grace 
impossible. Dealers can often persuade buyers 
that the upright shoulder is stronger for harness 
work, and here in London parks I have seen 
horses of this type dash strainingly along, 
expending their strength in fashionable action, 
and with the unavoidable pull on the neck 
"corrected" by the bearing-rein; the average 
owner not guessing the difficulty of his creat- 
ures, or the torture that in years too few will 
bring them to a coster's cart or the dump- 
heap. Having seen and mourned such things, 
I was happy to find high withers the rule 
in Wales, and to learn that wise breeders 



43 



THE WELSH PONY 

were laying stress on this point and breeding 
for it. 

Although, as I have said, there has been some 
imprudent crossing with heavier breeds, these 
unsuccessful types are being weeded out, and 
methods of improving the Welsh pony are now, 
for the most part, confined to individual selec- 
tion within his own breed, or to the careful 
introduction of thoroughbred and Arab blood. 
Of course the door is not entirely closed to 
other comers, and I talked with one breeder 
of thirty years' experience who believed in 
mating his ponies with any sire of fine type 
that had the points he was trying for. But 
this gentleman possesses a sixth sense in regard 
to horses, and can safely indulge in latitude 
that might prove disastrous in the case of an 
equally conscientious but less intelligent breeder. 
Such a method heightens interest and is an 
open invitation to adventurous possibilities; but 
it is just as well, I think, that there are others 
who go to the opposite extreme and are ready 
to preach on all occasions against bringing 
alien blood into the mountains. From the 
shades of Ephraim a poser was once flung to 

44 



HIS QUALITIES 

the world — "Can two walk together unless 
they be agreed?" In this Instance, one might 
surprise hoary Amos with an affirmative, for 
these two classes of breeders do walk and work 
together for the good of the Welsh pony; one 
a barrier to harmful laxity, the other a protest 
against overcautious restriction. But while 
guarding him from invasion on his mountains, 
the most rigid of the "shut-the-door" advocates 
will permit him to go forth and conquer where 
he may. It is partly to strengthen him for 
these expeditions that they insist on keeping 
the mountain stock unmixed; and it Is true that 
in recent years he has grown much in favor as 
a factor in the improvement and modification 
of other pony breeds. 

The Polo pony is profiting much by his blood. 
It seems that the mountain habits practiced by 
the Welsh pony, in family seclusion and without 
applause, such as climbing ledges like a fly, 
turning and twisting himself out of physio- 
graphical difficulties, not to speak of his leaping 
powers (his tribe has furnished a champion 
jumper of the world) and his quick mental 
reaction upon the unexpected, have produced 

45 



THE WELSH PONY 

just the virtues which figure most brilliantly 
on the polo field. As the game has grown in 
complexity, the ponies of the plains, Argentine, 
Arabian, American, have given place to those 
of hill-bred ancestry. To get the requisite 
height and weight-bearing power, yet keep 
the pony qualities, the hardihood, the astute- 
ness, the thought-like instancy of motion — a 
wit that can almost prophesy — is a problem 
that is being patiently worked out. I cannot 
follow the mystical ways which lead to the 
production of the unparagoned Polo pony; but 
it is not until the third or fourth generation 
that the breeder arrives at the nonpareil, the 
heart's desire of the polo player. In the first 
generation a thoroughbred cross with the moun- 
tain stock is more satisfactory than the Arab, 
but the advantage is soon lost, as a type with 
a pedigree covering something over two hundred 
years cannot compete in persistence with one 
that has been established for five times that 
period. 

But to get back to the pony on his hill-tops. 
Careful breeding from the finest of the native 
stock is now doing more for him than any 

46 



HIS QUALITIES 

crossing. While close in-breeding tends to bring 
out latent defects in any strain, the mountain 
families are so numerous, and the points to be 
kept down are so few, that this gives little 
trouble to breeders. I have spoken of the low 
withers, which are being eliminated, and some- 
times there is a badly set-on head — a more 
serious matter that, if beauty only were in- 
volved — but an angular junction is not often 
seen, and the head in every case is finely formed, 
with the large, wide brow of the Arab, tapering 
face-bones, small, sensitive ears, delicate, silken 
mouth that needs only a touch in guidance, and 
roomy underchannel between the branches of 
the lower jaw. There is never a fiddle-head, 
heavy jaw, leathered nose, or anything sugges- 
tive of the coarse-bred animal in these little 
creatures that may proudly trample on parch- 
ment pedigrees. But now they are to have 
their, parchments too. 

I have heard it said that the arching crest 
is not easy to secure in conjunction with high 
withers, but the combination is often found in 
the Welsh pony. As I mentioned in my pre- 
vious letter, in all points of grace he has more to 

47 



THE WELSH PONY 

be thankful for than his neighbors to the north 
and south of him. Lord Arthur Cecil suggests 
as an explanation of the ungainliness of Fell 
ponies, that by long huddling against winter 
storms on treeless slopes, they have become 
hunched and heavy, both fore and aft, while 
their middle shows only a discouraged develop- 
ment. But, though the winds of the Welsh 
peaks may be less keen, they are keen enough 
to furnish ample incentive to the huddling 
spirit; yet the Welsh pony has the head I have 
described, fine, well-placed shoulders, a deep, 
round barrel, and quarters that, in general, 
break no rule of proportion. Therefore, I 
think the difference is one of origin. The Fell 
pony is probably a descendant of dwarf horses 
that escaped to the Pennines during seasons of 
persecution, and being unestablished as to type 
was more easily modified by environment. I 
should like to think this because it supports me 
in the belief that I have taken the right track 
in pursuing the Welsh pony's ancestry. 

I have not spoken of his adaptiveness to 
other climates, but he is little affected by 
transplantation. A breed formed of the two 

48 




z 

o 

h ■§ 

< u 

2 -a 

O «J 

z '^ 



HIS QUALITIES 

oldest races known, and having in its own type 
a genealogical history of a thousand years, is 
apt to persist under any sky, and this is probably 
why he thrives so well apart from his native 
heath. I am told that even in Canada he does 
not object to wintering out; but I should like 
to interview a pony that has tried it before 
proffering the information as fact. However, 
if any ill reports have come back from the 
numbers shipped to Australia and America, 
they have been successfully concealed from me. 
I want you to know that the mountain pony's 
hocks are a feature not to be passed lightly by. 
They never fail to bring him commendation 
from the horseman who knows. The curby 
hocks sometimes found in the larger type of 
South Wales are unknown to him. His own 
are always of the right shape, having plenty of 
compact bone showing every curve and denture 
under thin, shining skin, and with clean-cut, 
powerful back sinews at an unhampered dis- 
tance from the suspensory tendons. "His 
hocks do send him along," as one admirer said. 
The limbs themselves, whether fore or hind, 
are handsomely dropped and clear of all blemish 

49 



THE WELSH PONY 

— no bubbly knees, soufflets about the ankles, 
puffy fetlocks, or contracted heels. The pasterns 
are of the approved gentle obliquity — neither 
short and upright, betraying stubborn flexors^ 
nor long enough to weaken the elasticity of the 
support that must here guard the whole body 
from concussion. The pastern is a debatable 
point, but I refer all advocates of the "long" 
and "short" schools to the golden mean which 
the Welsh pony has evolved for himself in those 
much-mentioned disciplinary years on his prob- 
lematic hills. 

The hoof is always round, never the suspicious 
bell shape, and blue, deep and dense. One 
need not look there for symptoms of sand-crack, 
seedy-toe, pumice-foot, or any of the pedal ills 
that too often beset the lowland horse. The 
centuries of unshod freedom among his crags 
have given the hoof a resisting density coupled 
with the diminutive form that agility demands; 
and this happy union the smithies of man have 
not yet been able to sever or vitiate. Even the 
thoroughbred must sometimes find a downward 
gaze as fatal to vanity as did the peacock of 
our venerated spelling-book; but not the Welsh 

50 



HIS QUALITIES 

pony. He may look to earth as to Heaven 
with unchastened pride. 

And now that the hoof has brought me to 
the ground I will not mount again. If I have 
ridden my pony too hard, bethink you who it 
was that set me upon him. You remember 
Isaac Walton's caution when instructing an 
angler how to bait a hook with a live frog: — 
"And handle the frog as if you loved him." 
However infelicitously I may have impaled the 
pony on my pen, I hope you will own that I 
have done it as if I loved him. Though I am 
not ready to say that the "earth sings when he 
touches it," be assured that he will gallantly 
carry more praise than I have laid upon him. 

I have no quarrel with the motor, though it 
has made me eat dust more than once. As a 
means of transporting the body when the object 
is to arrive^ I grant it superlative place. But as 
a medium between man and Nature it is a failure. 
It will never bring them together. The motor 
is restricted to the highway, and from the 
highway one can never get more from Nature 
than a nod of half recognition. She remains a 
stranger undivined. 

51 



THE WELSH PONY 

But on a ramble with a pony, adaptive, un- 
obtrusive, all the leisurely ways are open — the 
deepwood path, or the trail up the exhilerating 
steep. As self-effacing as you wish, he saves 
you from weariness and frees the mind for its 
own adventure. There will be pause for ques- 
tion, and if Nature ever answers at all, you 
will hear her. There will be the placid hour 
that is healing-time with her woods, her skies 
and waters; and that communion with her 
divinity which means rest and — haply — peace. 

O. T. D. 



52 



IP^'W 



JAN 20 1913 



LIBRARY OF 



CONGRESS 



002 847 062 9 



